Fabrication and Evaluation of Trimethylmethoxysilane (TMMOS)-Derived Membranes for Gas Separation

Yoshihiro Mise; So-Jin Ahn; Atsushi Takagaki; Ryuji Kikuchi; Shigeo Ted Oyama

doi:10.3390/membranes9100123

Fabrication and Evaluation of Trimethylmethoxysilane (TMMOS)-Derived Membranes for Gas Separation

Membranes (Basel). 2019 Sep 20;9(10):123. doi: 10.3390/membranes9100123.

Authors

Yoshihiro Mise¹, So-Jin Ahn¹, Atsushi Takagaki¹, Ryuji Kikuchi¹, Shigeo Ted Oyama^{2

3

4}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemical System Engineering, the University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8556, Japan.
² Department of Chemical System Engineering, the University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8556, Japan. oyama@vt.edu.
³ Department of Chemical Engineering, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA. oyama@vt.edu.
⁴ Fuzhou University, College of Chemical Engineering, Fuzhou 350116, China. oyama@vt.edu.

Abstract

Gas separation membranes were fabricated with varying trimethylmethoxysilane(TMMOS)/tetraethoxy orthosilicate (TEOS) ratios by a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method at650 °C and atmospheric pressure. The membrane had a high H₂ permeance of 8.3 × 10^-7 mol m^-2 s^-1Pa^-1 with H2/CH4 selectivity of 140 and H₂/C₂H₆ selectivity of 180 at 300 °C. Fourier transforminfrared (FTIR) measurements indicated existence of methyl groups at high preparationtemperature (650 °C), which led to a higher hydrothermal stability of the TMMOS-derivedmembranes than of a pure TEOS-derived membrane. Temperature-dependence measurements ofthe permeance of various gas species were used to establish a permeation mechanism. It was foundthat smaller species (He, H2, and Ne) followed a solid-state diffusion model while larger species (N₂,CO₂, and CH₄) followed a gas translational diffusion model.

Keywords: CVD; hydrogen separation; pore size control; separation mechanism; silica-based membrane; trimethylmethoxisilane.

Grants and funding

JPMJCR16P2/Core Research for Evolutional Science and Technology